tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5147000415127454560.post783893443948567629..comments2023-12-09T12:13:00.212-08:00Comments on AOL Journals 1st Old Hickory's Weblog: Confederate "Heritage" Month - April 4: The kindness and consideration of slaveownersBruce Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05022449143502020665noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5147000415127454560.post-3188123139964091492005-04-03T23:27:00.000-07:002005-04-03T23:27:00.000-07:00I was at a site a few weeks ago called Northern Sl...I was at a site a few weeks ago called Northern Slavery (www.northernlslavery.com). The basic premise of the site is for the webmaster to show all who visit that the North, too, had slavery. Apparently, he believes there is some sort of conspiracy to completely erase from American history books the fact that Northern states before and immediately after the American Revolution had slavery; of course my 8th grade history book (wow, that thing comes in handy) does mention that Northern states had slaves, so the so-called conspiracy to whitewash and revisionize, I don't see where he gets that.<br><br>Anyhow, there is a part of the site which deals with the American Colonization Society and their efforts to send former slaves back to Africa. He takes up the issue of Abraham Lincoln's purported support for such a plan. I just wanted to know what you're opinion of that was. <br><br>(I'm not trying to knock Lincoln, but if he did believe that former slaves should have been sent back to Africa, I think the issue should be addressed.) Here's the more specific address pertaining to this subject (www.northernslavery.com/colonize.htm)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5147000415127454560.post-4812415642229867462005-04-03T23:31:00.000-07:002005-04-03T23:31:00.000-07:00Scratch those websites I gave you. The correct li...Scratch those websites I gave you. The correct links are www.slavenorth.com or if you want to go specifically to the part about colonization www.slavenorth.com/colonize.htmAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5147000415127454560.post-62178530114535222322005-04-04T11:36:00.000-07:002005-04-04T11:36:00.000-07:00Actually, I'll be touching on some related issues ...Actually, I'll be touching on some related issues in other posts in this series.<br><br>But I'm not sure who the Lost Cause crowd thinks is conspiring to keep Northern slavery secret. Sojourner Truth herself was a slave in New York state before slavery was abolished there. The difference, of course, is that the Northeastern states abolished slavery, while states like Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin came into the Union as free states. That was due to a deal originally brokered by Thomas Jefferson when the State of Virginia owned those territories to permanently exclude slavery from that area. The Congress (under the Articles of Confederation government) wrote the arrangement into federal law as the Northwest Ordinance when those territories became a federal responsibility.<br><br>The invention of the cotton gin was one of several reasons that slavery remained in the Southern states, because it made cotton farming more profitable. In the Northeast, the free population increased much faster than the slave population and the free citizens didn't want slavery around. Part of that experience was that free whites associated the absence of slavery with the absence of black people. That is one of the reasons why a completely impractical scheme like colonization could be taken seriously by people like Jefferson and Lincoln.<br><br>The idea had virtually zero support among freed slaves and black abolitionists. They knew it was a crock and said so to white abolitionists who retained the idea. A few slaves were settled in Liberia, where they had a tough time of it. There was a book published in the last couple of years called *Mississippi in Africa* that traces the lives and descendants of former Mississippi slaves who were among the few actually colonized "back" to Africa. - BruceAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com